DEA Planning to Ban Hemp Products, Create Idiotic New Drug Crimes

   The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has officially
   announced that it intends to ban most now-legal hemp products
   in the United States -- including all hemp foods, hemp
   ingredients, and hemp nutritional supplements made from
   sterile (non-psychoactive) hemp seeds. These legal products
   are currently quite popular. The DEA wants to kill these new
   industries.

   Currently, it is against the law to grow hemp in the U.S.,
   but raw hemp and hemp products may be imported. Once
   imported, hemp products may be possessed, used, and sold just
   like any other legal commodity. This has been U.S. law for 63
   years.

   The DEA is attempting to achieve this radical change in U.S.
   policy quietly, through creating an "interim rule"
   establishing the ban. An interim rule has the force of law
   once it is published in the Federal Register, which can be
   done without vote or public comment. Several federal agencies
   must agree to the proposed rules before they can become
   effective. The Department of Justice has already done so. The
   others are Customs, Treasury, Commerce, and the Office of
   Management and Budget.

   According to the Coalition to Save Hemp, a coalition formed
   to fight the new regulations, it is possible, maybe even
   likely, that the DEA will also ban personal-care hemp
   products. Since hemp-based shampoos, soaps, lotions, and so
   forth come into contact with the human skin, the DEA may
   argue that they convey THC (the primary active ingredient in
   marijuana) into the human system, even though there is no
   known evidence that this is possible. (It is impossible to
   get a psychoactive effect from hemp-based shampoos and
   soaps.)

   According to the DEA, the consumption of legal hemp products
   is "confounding our federal drug control testing program."
   The DEA claims the use of hemp products could cause
   individuals to test positive for marijuana, even if they are
   not using marijuana. (Opponents cite studies claiming this is
   nonsense.)

   The DEA essentially wants to treat hemp and hemp products
   just like marijuana. This means that hemp will have the same
   legal status as marijuana -- and heroin.

   Based on current drug penalties, the Coalition speculates
   that if these rules become law, literally millions of
   Americans could become criminals overnight merely for
   possessing salad dressing, cakes, shampoos, lotions, soaps
   and other products that have the slightest amount of
   naturally occurring THC.

   Also, extrapolating from current law, those who are arrested
   for shampoo, salad dressings and so forth could,
   theoretically, face up to one year in federal prison and a
   $10,000 fine -- the same penalties they would face if they
   were arrested for possessing a small amount of marijuana.

   If someone is arrested with a stockpile of (currently legal)
   hemp products that weighs hundreds of pounds, The Coalition
   to Save Hemp says the defendant could face a 5- or 10-year
   mandatory minimum prison sentence -- or even the death
   penalty (!) -- under federal law, for the illegal possession
   of non-psychoactive shampoos and soaps.

   That may sound outlandish, and perhaps the DEA won't go that
   far. But who knows, really? The history of the Drug War is
   filled with brutal, illogical, intrusive and idiotic ideas
   that became law. Arresting and jailing people for owning soap
   and shampoo fits right in.

   The Coalition To Save Hemp has created a Web site with more
   information on the proposed regulations:
   http://www.SaveHemp.org The Drug Reform Coalition Network
   also has information at this site:
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/165.html#hempembargo

   (Source: Coalition to Save Hemp/DRC-Net/ Thanks to Roy
   Lieberman)